Taxidermist

Inspiring people, connecting Scotland to the world and the world to Scotland

National Museums Scotland is one of the UK's leading museum services. It has a national and international reach and operates four museum sites.

A major redevelopment programme has transformed the National Museum of Scotland and it is now the most visited attraction in the UK outside London. Inspired by a £80 million Masterplan, the redevelopment made fundamental changes to what we offer visitors, making much more of our beautiful building and rich collections to reveal our treasures in new ways. Two phases have been completed - on time and on budget. To date over £60m of investment has been provided by the Scottish Government, the Heritage Lottery Fund, and over 1,000 generous donors.

The next phase is an ambitious £14.1 million vision for our internationally important collections of Art & Design and Science & Technology.

As well as a vibrant annual programme of exhibitions, events and digital experiences across our museums and collections, we are restoring two historic hangars at the National Museum of Flight with exciting new visitor displays and creating new research and storage facilities at the National Museums Collection Centre

Taxidermist

£26,369 to £29,564 per annum plus membership of Civil Service pension scheme

You will be responsible for the collection, preparation and conservation of animal specimens within the Department of Natural Sciences.

You will develop your specialist knowledge to improve the quality and longevity of display specimens, and to promote access to the collections.

You will hold the Guild of Taxidermists professional qualification, or equivalent, and will have good knowledge of a wide range of taxidermy techniques, as well as knowledge of anatomy, to HND level or equivalent, and of potential health and safety issues. Your knowledge and appreciation of natural history, live animals and behaviour will enable you to use drawings, photos and video to produce display taxidermy of the highest quality. You will have proven experience in museum taxidermy or similar, including working with other professionals to contribute to exhibitions and experimentation. Good colour vision, the ability to preserve and mount skins, sculpt, mould and cast, and excellent manual dexterity, are essential, as is a full driving licence.

Details of this post and of all our vacancies can be viewed on www.nms.ac.uk

For further information and an application pack, please visit www.nms.ac.uk, telephone 0131 247 4094 (answerphone) or email applications@nms.ac.uk, stating reference NMS14/523.

Closing date for completed applications is by Friday 3rd October 2014.

National Museums Scotland is committed to being an Equal Opportunities Employer.